The Crew

Monkeying in the great climbing tree outside of the community center (where we eat all of our meals and drink lots of tea)

From top left going clockwise: David, Leaf, Hannah, Emma, Stacie, Jake, Abbi, Gretz, Emily, Ina Grace, Me (Dragonfly), Callie, Elizabeth, Tom, Samantha, Mikaela

School and Reality: Bridging the Gap

Findhorn is a huge sigh of relief from the flatlander education I’ve become so accustomed to. I am realizing more and more how frustrating the reality of institutionalized education is. You can take a class about “sustainability” or “diversity and conflict resolution”, but then you pack up your books, walk out the door and the Mexican immigrant mowing the lawn may still be invisible to you. It is not a character flaw so much as a lack of conceptual framework incorporating reality into school. It’s as if the classroom is somehow disconnected from an actual understanding of reality. I feel this is because institutional education values strict intellectualism—so much headiness, so much theory—we are never actually taught how to live knowledge, we simply know the knowledge.

So I guess what I’ve concluded is that institutional education lacks depth, it lacks a full acknowledgement of human experience—from emotions to dreams to spirituality to bodily functions—basically ANYTHING besides the intellectual is completely undermined.

For this reason, I am really beginning to appreciate the ways of the Findhorn Ecovillage. We do something called “tuning in”, for example. Before we enter into a new activity like starting a class or working in the kitchen, we stand in a circle and center ourselves into the present moment. Someone will say something like “let’s take a moment to think about what we’ve done today, maybe leave it behind, acknowledge what’s going on inside of you, and then try to become present in this new space and this new activity.” It’s so simple, so painless, so quick—yet so profound. It gives meaning to action; it is a practice in appreciation; it forces us to take a moment and smell the food before we eat it—to leave behind any past resentments and prepare to pick some tomatoes—to take a simple breath and remember that we are alive.

We also do interactive learning. For our first Group Dynamics class, our teacher had us build free-standing structures out of recycled newspapers. For our Sustainability class, we will be visiting local organic gardens and the living waste water purification system at the park. For our Worldviews and Consciousness class, we meditate and journal rather than reading theory after theory about worldviews and consciousness. Findhorn is a complete internalization of education. To me, Findhorn is a reminder of what learning actually is. As a good friend, Walt, once told me "Why learn? To live a more full and rich life. That's it."


P.S. Findhorn is very magical. Did I mention that yet?
CHECK OUT THIS APPLE...



my housemate Jake took it from a tree right outside of the meditation sanctuary

the mystery continues...

No Culture?

That has always been one of my biggest concerns with a movement "back to the land"--so much culture is in the cities. Urban environments happen to breed art, music, poetry, dance; it's a confluence of ethnicity and flavor, a fondue pot of rich cheeses and chocolates--of guitars and metaphors and colors galore. But all of this art somewhat arises as a reaction--if a song is not about love it's usually about what's wrong with our society today.

Here at Findhorn, I can see four huge windmills through the windows of the art museum that is almost near completion. The garden that grows tomatoes, lettuces and broad beans for the whole community is about 100 yards behind the Blue Angel Cafe, where I performed a song and a spoken word poem at an Open Mic night tonight. Yes this is reality--I have to remind myself every day. It is all a dream and it is all a reality. Someone once dreamed it and now it is in flesh. Self-expression and sustainability have fallen in love.

The Blue Angel Cafe is in the upstairs part of a giant and dynamic performance space, used for theatre, dance, music, and anything you can think of, really. There have been Bushmen dancers (who performed a few months ago) and comedians, celtic musicians and chamber orchestras--next week the show "Strangeface" is coming through. There is no denial that self-expression is a vital part of human sanity here, almost as vital as food and sustainable energy production.

The Exterior of Universal Hall

The Interior of Universal Hall

Universal Hall seems to be a cultural hub of the surrounding area here in Northern Scotland. There are towns within the surrounding 10 miles and a lot of people who live in those towns are in some way connected to the ecovillage. On Friday night, I and the other FCS students (Findhorn College Semester) were asked to partake in a Victorian/Recyclable Fashion Show to raise money for a women's organization in India. Every day something radically new is happening here and it is not an accident. There is an awareness of the need for cultural fulfillment. The multi-dimensionality of human beings is fully acknowledged at Findhorn, from physical to intellectual to spiritual.

I felt an excitement in my whole body as I performed a poem tonight at the Blue Angel Cafe. I called it "Alphabetitis-an addiction to diction" There were about 25 people in the cafe and one woman had brought all types of drums and tambourines and maracas, so I encouraged people to make a beat for me while I recited the poem. I felt a surge of energy rush through my body as I spoke; a middle-aged man with long brown locks beat on a drum while a young woman in the back softly shook her tambourine. I never could have imagined I could get this--here. This culture, this music, this art--here. But here it was, in what I no longer call "the middle of nowhere." This is the middle of everywhere. New people come in each week to experience Findhorn and to think about what this means for the rest of the world. I'm starting to see Findhorn and other ecovillages as perhaps the keystone in the bridge that must be built between where we are now and where we need to be.

More and more, I'm realizing the importance of the idea that sustainable isn't just logistical. Yes of course there is farming and alternative energy and composting involved, but there is a mental space that is calling out for help as well. I'd say many people agree that our exterior situation is unsustainable, but have you ever thought--is our interior situation sustainable?
The news reports every day on crime and war and debt but,
why no news reports on depression, anxiety and fear?
Why is external reality more traumatic than the internal?
How could they be perceived as so distinct from each other?

Scotland Rocks- Pun Intended

scotland rocks, pun intended


monkeying around with the other findhorn semester students


fieldtrip to a whiskey distillery

Findhorn Surprise

I have been inspired by individuals who simply live the change they wish to see in the world--no preaching, no threatening, no speculating or instigating--simply living the lives that make them feel whole. Satish Kumar somehow arrived in St. Louis last semester and talked with my friends and I about nonviolence and the state of the planet. His humble presence left me buzzing, his words were so powerful and so truthful. Here at Findhorn I have found out that Satish Kumar is an extremely respected teacher/elder/human being. We barely knew who he was at the time which makes me infinitely more inspired by his humility and his faith that his feet would bring him wherever he was most needed on the Earth.

I feel more and more each day that I become what I believe...and it feels good. I think it is only individuals that can make the choice to change within themselves--sometimes this can happen on a collective scale but ultimately it is ourselves that make the first move.

Thus, with my new and exciting knowledge of edibles, I went ahead and cooked what I like to call the "Findhorn Surprise." ALL of the ingredients were gathered within a mile of my bungalow. That was empowering in itself. The dish consisted of seaweed from Findhorn Bay, potatoes from Cullerne Gardern, and Rosemary, Thyme, and Marjoram from the herb garden. I put it out at the lunch buffet and the community was ecstatic.

They told me the dish was delicious. I cooked it for my own enjoyment, to humor myself by breaking through the boxes that tell me I can't cook seaweed from the bay but I can buy it in plastic wrap from the store down the street. And besides for humoring myself, there is a thriving possibility that my action will inspire someone else to cook a local dish. How naive of us humans, made of 78% water, to think that our motions in the world do not act exactly as ripples in a pond do. They expand, they intersect, they project. They are like an owl's hoot in the middle of the night--never knowing how many creatures have heard the call.

I'll end tonight with some beautiful words passed on by Satish Kumar's mother:
"As a seed is capable of becoming a tree, all human beings are also capable of realising their own full potential. In order for the seed to become a tree it must be planted in the soil--underground, in the dark, and almost forgotten. In relationship with the earth, the seed surrenders its separateness, its identity, its individuality, its ego. In fact, the seed allows itself to become one with the earth, only then its hidden energy bursts open and we see green shoots emerging like a miracle."

Wild Edible Wisdom

It would be impossible to write about everything I have learned and experienced thus far at Findhorn Ecovillage, but I will share what I share and we will see what comes. Yesterday I went on a wild edible walk with a fascinating and wise herbal medicine man named Frank Cook. (http://www.plantsandhealers.com)

He told his fascinating life journey thus far of finding his passion for the plant world after going on a plant walk with 7song, the founder of the Northeast Botanical Medicine School in Ithaca, NY. He has travelled the world and particularly the United States learning all about the edible plants that grow “wildly” all around us. (I put wild in quotes because what does wild mean? Anything not planted by human intention?) I have never heard so much living knowledge about plants and herbs in my entire life. His message is one of abundance—look around, our best healers could be in our backyards. Roots, weeds, mushrooms, seaweeds, grasses—they all provide tons of nutrition and are extremely abundant

I learned soon after we began that a wild edible walk is more like a wild edible crawl. There were so many plants within a few yards of the building that we stayed in almost the same spot for three hours! The first picture is of dandelions, which you can eat EVERY part of—the leaves, stem, roots, and flower. You can either roast the roots or eat them raw, which is a great way to pre-feed the digestive tract; bacteria/gut flora feed off of the Inulin in the roots. I know we are accustomed to seeing arugula and spinach in our salads, but wouldn’t it be exciting to get some dandelion thrown in there? It’s all about getting creative and realizing the full potential of nature. Agriculture has become such a mono-crop culture; we’re being robbed of variety! The average American only eats a variety of 25 plants when there are THOUSANDS of edible plant species in the world.

St. John’s Wort is another healing “weed”. It is used to treat depression and burns and wounds. It has a subtle yellow flower and is found growing in the wild all over Scotland (and I’m sure many other parts of the world.)

So then we talked about grasses. Did you know THERE ARE NO POISONOUS GRASSES? So if there is ever a world crisis where BAM the lights turn out—just walk away from society for three weeks and know that you can eat all the grasses. (This was the advice given by Victoras Kulvinskas in his book Survival Into the 21st Century.) Yeah, it could be apocalyptic conspiracy theory and all that… but you know…I bet the Romans didn’t see it coming either, so just remember—grass won’t kill you. But the thing with grasses is that you can’t actually break down their fibers so you chew on them instead and suck out the chlorophyll for nutrients. You can also eat the seeds once they go to seed. Barley, rye, sugar, and rice are all in the grass family—they make up a HUGE part of our diet.

Nettles really shocked me—they are pretty harsh plants with a wicked sting. Frank nonchalantly picked a nettle leaf and said, “notice how all the needles go in one direction? You can push them down without getting stung, roll it up, and then make what I like to call a green pill.” I was blown away! But his confidence inspired me, so I grabbed a nettle leaf and held it in my hand. I pushed down on it just to feel the sting—ouch. But it only hurt for a moment, and then it turned into a nice rush of adrenalin. I brushed the needles down and then rolled it in my palm. Here it goes…I popped it into my mouth and ate it. YUM. It was much like any other salad green but it had a unique flavor of its own. Nettles are full of important nutrients like Boron. Also, Nettle tea is DELICIOUS.

I learned about so many wild edibles and medicines that I can’t wait to experiment with, but the last one I’ll share is called elderberry. When the fruit is in season it is used as a powerful antiviral. It can be crushed and fermented, made into a wine, or made into a tincture, among other things.

This wild edible crawl just made me think about the meaning of holistic medicine. Holistic, involving body mind and spirit--conceptualizing the human body as an inseparable part of nature--effected by everything from the tiniest microbe to the condensation on the window of my bedroom. Holistic to me means becoming aware of those little gifts that are EVERYWHERE. I never would have known that the dandelion weed in my front yard could help aid digestion or that I could survive off of the nutrients in grass. This is ancient knowledge that humans have lost only over the last 200 years really. Before this mirage of supermarkets in the Western World, people knew how to ferment and preserve their foods. They also knew that things grow in seasons and that there are crests and troughs of production, rather than the seemingly endless selection that supermarket aisles provide. I’m not asking to move backwards in time because that's impossible, but I have questions about every single energy-intensive modern comfort that relies on oil. From the planes that fly mangoes to the A&P in mid-February to the petroleum-based fertilizer that grows jumbo-sized tomatoes. I just question it. Questions of quantity versus quality. Have you ever tried those ugly-looking, misshaped tomatoes with lumps and bruises galore? They’re delicious!

So those are my thoughts for the day. If you feel inspired, go eat a dandelion and report back to me about your experience. And try twice—maybe with some balsamic on top the second time around. Mmm mmm good. (I mean, we don’t eat arugula undressed either so don’t expect too much from the dandelion, you know?)